


Sakura Haruno, Freelance Kunoichi

by Grande_Crosse



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Sakura, Eventually Bad Ass Sakura, Gen, Inner Sakura Is The Result Of A Bloodline, Missing Ninja, Sakura Centric, Undocumented Bloodline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2018-09-22 16:59:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9616967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grande_Crosse/pseuds/Grande_Crosse
Summary: The mission to the land of waves ends in tragedy when Team Seven is betrayed by Kakashi, who was setting them up for failure under orders from Danzo.  Only one member managed to escape.  Now Sakura only has one hope to survive and to save Konoha, become a missing ninja.





	1. Team Seven Betrayed

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Naruto. I know that comes as a shock but I really don't. 
> 
> This story seems kind of random, I know, but idea sort of came to me out of the blue but I decided to go with it and in the process I think that I enjoyed writing it. I hope that you enjoy reading it. Please be sure to read and review, your responses help make this a better tale...

It was night and a blanket of mist was hanging closely over the ground, undisturbed if not for a girl that was running through the undergrowth pellmell. She was a slightly built girl, small for her age and her only notable features was her pale pink hair and dull green eyes. Her name was Sakura Haruno. Sakura's breathing was labored as she dodged past a tree, trying to keep from running in a straight line while keeping as low to the ground as possible. It paid off as she narrowly missed getting hit by a kunai.

She was lucky so far as the man stalking her through the wilderness was being lazy and simply toying with her so far. If the man were being serious, Sakura would be dead. She would've been dead long before now.

Sakura liked to think that she was talented for a genin, and she was. Thanks to her being a dedicated student, she had been the top kunoichi when she graduated the academy barely half a year ago. And if it weren't for the blatant favoritism, she had the sneaking suspicion she would have been rookie of the year as well.

Despite that, she was under no illusion about her odds. Her pursuer was a jonin, a former member of the ANBU, and a veteran of the previous Shinobi War, according to what limited information turned up in her research on her famous sensei. Her only hope was that Kakashi continued to underestimate her and that the one pursuing her was a kagebushin.

Please be a kagebushin, Sakura prayed in her mind as she silently switched out with one of her own illusionary bushin, a basic technique that she effortlessly mastered in her second year of the academy without telling anyone else.

She had been leading Kakashi around in circles for nearly two hours now, only able to do so because of how easy she was finding it to circulate her chakra throughout her whole body. She was also leading the chase in circles because she was trapped in genjutsu that causes their victims to go in circles, thinking that they were going in a straight line. That just went to show how much Sakura was being underestimated as it was the same exact genjutsu that Kakashi had trapped her in during the fateful bell test when she tried to assist Naruto. This time she recognized it almost right away.

But rather than extract herself from the illusion, she used it to her advantage. If the one pursuing her really was a kagebushin it wouldn't have as much chakra as the original did and maintaining genjutsu for significant periods of time was very taxing on chakra so if he was kagebushin then he wouldn't be able to do it for much longer, plus his attention would be divided severely.

All that were just some of the reasons why genjutsu was preferred for ambushes rather than extended fights. With all the limitations it was no wonder that ninja seldom specialized in it, Sakura thought to herself.

With all that and since it night time and foggy, the odds for her survival were looking better than abysmal. Plus Kakashi was unlikely to use his hidden Sharingan or his dog summons, even if the one pursuing her was the real deal, partly because he was still recovering from the battle on the Great Naruto Bridge and partly because she wasn't being taken seriously.

She was beginning to entertain the hope that she would live through the night, but that hope died a quick death when she felt the genjutsu lift. And in front of her appeared Kakashi in a swirl of leaves, as cool as you please. At first she thought he had gotten bored, until she took a closer look at the white-haired man in front of her.

There was no doubt in her mind now that he was in fact a kagebushin, further he was looking a bit pale and sweaty. It was a sure sign that he was nearing the useful limits of his chakra.

Her hope began to stir again.

"I must applaud you, Sakura. You lasted longer than I thought you would, certainly longer than Sasuke and Naruto did. We reacquired them almost right away. And that business with swapping in and out with your bushin was truly inspired. I almost didn't catch on to it," Kakashi said, obviously trying to take her off guard with the praise. But Sakura wasn't falling for it, neither was Inner.

"It was nothing special, I merely used my environment to my advantage," Sakura replied, not sure if Kakashi was telling the truth about her teammates' capture.

However, she knew her teammates. Both of those two thickheaded boys were the type to face their own pursuers head on and their enemies were all at least ANBU level threats. She could easily imagine the boys getting themselves recaptured, although she could also imagine Naruto escaping as he had experience eluding ANBU back at Konoha, although she was fairly certain that they weren't giving their all at the time. Sasuke, on the other hand, had a real bad habit of overestimating himself and underestimating pretty much everyone else.

Then again Kakashi could be lying. But even if he weren't, Sasuke and Naruto weren't in any immediate danger. Sasuke was wanted since he had the Sharingan, possibly as breeding stock, and Naruto supposedly had the Kyuubi sealed in his naval. At least according to the bandaged man that seemed to be calling the shots, although that certainly explained a lot.

As for Sakura, she was worthless in the big scheme of things. She didn't come from any notable clans, had no major bloodline that she was aware of, and she didn't have any secret techniques. If she was lucky she'd simply be killed, otherwise she would be reduced to a brood mare to produce more Sharingan users.

Neither possibility was worth considering, she had to make good her own escape and hope that the boys had gotten away.

"Yes, that is the right way to look at it. How often have I tried to impart such wisdom on you three? Well, I'm glad my teachings have been taken in by at least one of you."

**_"As if! Name one thing that he has ever taught us!"_** Inner demanded. And Sakura couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, Kakashi hadn't taught Team Seven anything at all especially not her.

Everything she had learned she had been largely taught by the academy. Even the tree climbing exercise, which Kakashi had assigned to the team a week ago, she learned out of the student handbook which had long became something of a bible to her. It had taken her less than five minutes to completely master the technique because she found it so easy to apply, and both of the boys on her team took the whole week to even get good at it. It was enough to make her doubt that either one of them even bothered to read the handbook.

She wanted to correct the slowly approaching jonin, but she couldn't afford to unnecessarily provoke him just now. Instead she had to ask something that was on her mind, "If I'm about to die anyway, do you mind telling me what I'm to die for?"

"Honestly speaking, it's nothing personal. And there's no deep meaning to your death. But you see, things are going to change for Konoha and the weak must be cleansed to make way for the strong. So even if you were to be spared here you wouldn't be able to survive back at Konoha. So I'm really doing you a favor."

Sakura shook her head in response, "Funny, it doesn't feel like you're doing me any favors from where I'm standing."

"Really? Because at least this way you aren't living like you have a sword hanging over your head. The only other option, as I'm sure has crossed your mind, is to become breeding stock because of your gender. Which fate do you think is worse?"

"You're all heart, Kakashi," Sakura replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Apparently the jonin and his commander wanted to return Konoha to the days when women could only take on seduction missions.

And probably bloodline thefts, where they would send women at men with desirable major bloodlines to get impregnated by them. It was an unethical practice that had been banned since the early days of Konoha's existence. And also impractical because bloodlines don't always get passed down, that's why cadet branches existed in big clans that had major bloodlines (like the Uchiha did before it had been wiped out). And some bloodlines were passed down by women rather than men. Not that it was impossible for two women to bear children, what with some really impressive use of chakra and fuinjutsu, but it was enough to make it impractical to steal those bloodlines. It was also the kind of thing that lead to bloody conflicts in the past.

Sakura put her hands together, making the Ram Sign, for she sensed that the conversation has reached it's end. Now it was time to do or die, and she probably only had one shot to make her plan work.

Kakashi, for his part, didn't seem too bothered even though he undoubtedly knew that she was going to make one last attempt at defiance. "I know, aren't I just? Now, any last words?"

"Just the one..." Sakura replied, sending out a chakra web, hoping against hope that what she about to do would work. It caused Kakashi to hesitate in confusion, not that Sakura could blame him for being confused.

The chakra web technique wasn't typically considered a dangerous ability, after all, so there should have been no reason for her to use it in her current situation. She reached out with the chakra web for the explosive tags she had discarded when she had lead the kagebushin in circles. She had been able to set off tags using the chakra web before, but never had an opportunity to test it out on multiple tags before. **_"Not that there's any reason why this shouldn't work,"_** Inner whispered to her, "we just have to worry about the explosion because it's going to be huge!"

So Sakura pooled just enough chakra that she could shunshin out of danger... Hopefully. "Katsu!"

* * *

The kagebushin hadn't been lying when it had said that Sasuke and Naruto had been quickly reacquired, the two hot headed boys had tried fighting the masked ROOT shinobi instead of trying to make good their escape like Sakura did. They had since required more than an hour to prepare the two boys to the secret ROOT base, an old hideout of the traitorous sanin Orochimaru, which was why they had not made it far from where the genin had first been caught. It was especially slow going because they needed to be kept under a low level genjutsu to keep the boys pacified.

Still, Danzo was pleased with the current progress. There was still just one lose end to tie up, "Any word back from your kagebushin?"

"No," Kakashi replied, "It appears that the kagebushin has yet to move in for the kill. I have to hand it to her though, she has been surviving for a lot longer than many higher level ninja I have killed in the same circumstances."

The heavily bandaged man nodded in reply as their party moved through the underbrush, it would be too much risk of exposure to take the main road, which slowed them down even more. He was about to say something when the silence of the night was interrupted by a huge explosion coming from the direction that he knew that the kunoichi was in. It lit up the night briefly and Danzo knew that it had to be quite the explosion up close and personal.

The explosion died down as suddenly as it had appeared and the echoes had barely silenced before Kakashi remarked, "Clever girl. She used the fact that she was in a trap to set a trap for the one hunting her." It was hard to miss the hint of respect in his voice.

"Did she survive?"

"It's possible, want me to check?" Kakashi replied, preparing to send another kagebushin to investigate.

"Don't bother, what can she do? Even if she's still alive, she's a scarcely trained genin. She has no resources, no incredible skills, no experience in the outside world, and no allies. She won't survive a week."

Kakashi had to admit that it seemed unlikely that she would, so he concurred and the group started moving again...

[To Be Continued...]

 


	2. Sakura’s Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura survives the night, does some introspection, and comes to a decision. This humble start will lead to a legend... Provided she survives to become that legend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own Naruto nor do I claim to, neither have I made any money off of someone else’s intellectual properties. So please don’t sue. The story may contain some material or themes not suitable to all audiences, viewer discretion is advised.
> 
> Now before I go any further I should probably render an apology: I’m sorry that it took so long to get this chapter to you, the reader. It’s been a long and stressful year for me. Due to computer problems, I’ve had to rewrite this story at least three times and there were a couple times that I lost all hope in getting it done. But here it is, finally, for your enjoyment.

Sakura could barely believe that she had survived the night, any more than she could believe the events that had transpired during it. Her team was on something of a high after their first successful, really real mission (not the busy work nonsense designed to build character and experience that was so typical of Rank D missions), and their sensei brought them to a clearing in the woods. This was ostensibly to congratulate them on a job well done and to launch into a no doubt inspirational speech which, for some reason, set off her suspicions and made Inner uneasy. Retroactively, she now knew she should have listened to those suspicions because they turned out to be right.

He lead them right into an ambush lead by a bandaged man who went by the name of Danzo. Somehow Team Seven managed to get free of the ambush, although she now believed that had been intended. After being pursued by one of Kakashi's kagebushin she managed to miraculously not only survive, but to escape as well.

She kept running for next couple of hours, in the off chance that her pursuers decided to follow up and ensure that she died, until she couldn't run anymore and went to ground within the hollow of a particularly large tree. Sakura spent the rest of the night pointing a kunai out at the darkness, cringing at every noise and movement out in the foliage, and trying to fight off sleep and chakra exhaustion. But if Danzo, Kakashi, or any of those strange ninja with the strange masks had decided to pursue her they never found her. So morning finally came and, despite being beyond exhausted, Sakura was happy to see it. Indeed, it was hands down the best sunrise she had ever seen.

**_"Nothing like a little life or death to make you appreciate a sunset,"_** Inner said to her, likewise happy to have survived. Sakura agreed wholeheartedly, intent on never taking a sunrise for granted again.

At first, Sakura wanted to just curl back up in the tree hollow and go to sleep, preferably for a week. It wasn't as if it was likely that Kakashi or anyone in his mysterious group was likely to come looking for her now, assuming that they didn't think that she was dead, but she came to the conclusion that she needed to find better shelter. So she left the hollow behind, despite how dead tired and sore she felt, after picking a direction to go at random.

She wondered the forest for hours, with only that strange little voice that had been in the back of her head for as long as she could remember for company, until she came upon a clearing. For some reason that she couldn't quite put her finger on, the clearing seemed familiar to her even though it (thankfully) wasn't the clearing from the night before.

**_"It's the clearing from when we did that tree climbing exercise in, remember?"_** Inner supplied helpfully. Sakura looked around and saw markings on the sides of the trees all around where the boys, especially Naruto, spent all week trying to master such a basic technique.

Why was it that that seemed so long ago even though scarcely a week passed since?

The fond memory jogged another lose, and Sakura suddenly remembered the one day that Naruto came back to their clients' house. He had met a pretty boy there that he had claimed that was prettier even than Sakura. She remembered smacking Naruto, both for the remark and for the fact that the boy could have been an enemy and Naruto would have been defenseless because he had been asleep at the time. Of course, the effeminate boy had been an enemy yet he didn't seem to bear Team Seven a grudge.

Than something else that Naruto had said suddenly occurred to her, "Didn't he say that the boy was gathering medicinal herbs here?"

Indeed, Sakura could recognize the herb growing in the clearing. It was covered at length in first aid class back in the academy and it was also illustrated in detail in her student handbook, since it was such a common ingredient in healing salves. Sakura hadn't noticed it before, since she had spent such a brief amount of time in the clearing, but now that she looked she could see the herb all over the place. And then she quickly resolved not to be so unobservant of her surroundings in the future.

The time that the boy had been gathering herbs in the clearing would have been right around the time that Zabuza was recovering from his first fight with Kakashi. That thought caused another to arise, "If I were gathering medicine for an injured comrade who could only rely on me, I wouldn't want to go too far from them."

About an hour later Sakura found herself outside of what looked like a hunting cabin. A careful examination revealed minimal traps in the surroundings and none on the building itself. It seemed like a strange oversight to Sakura, given that Zabuza was supposed to be a survivor of the Bloody Mist, but there could have been any number of rational reasons for it. Whatever those reasons were, however, benefited her now as she entered the cabin...

* * *

 

Five days later found Sakura in a fully recovered state and in better spirits, having spent it resting. She explored the cabin and had found traveling supplies all packed up and ready to go. That probably explained why the cabin hadn't been trapped, they likely were expecting to have to leave in a hurry if they had been victorious.

Among the supplies was a bunch of scripts from various territories across the Land of Mist, since a centralized script didn't exist. There was sometimes a script shared by several territories in a region, but it just simply didn't exist. There was, instead, a series of monetary exchanges that wasn't always consistent. It made trade and barter between territories difficult, sometimes impossible in some cases. She didn't know what the exchange rates were on the script she found, but she would wager that it would be a lot if she were to risk using it.

There was also spare field rations, extra kunai and sebon, and even a nicely stocked first aid kit. In short, everything that she could hope to have as a ninja out in the field. In one of the packs she also found a map for the Land of Mist. There were a series of marks, presumably made by Zabuza, a few crossed out. Sakura didn't know exactly what that was about, because there wasn't a key explaining the marks, but she came to the conclusion that they were related to his work as a missing ninja.

When the five days came and past, she had to come to the conclusion that Kakashi's kagebushin hadn't been lying the night she had escaped. The boys had been caught, otherwise those ANBU look-a-likes would have continued searching the area and she would have been found again. It was because of that and no other reason that she was currently free.

At the evening of the fifth day, Sakura found herself at the memorial site of Zabuza and Haku. It wasn't really a grave per se, as Kakashi opted to have them cremated instead of buried. That was the custom for ninja, for very grisly and practical reasons.

The memorial wasn't even marked, excepting for two large stakes and Zabuza's giant sword driven into the ground. Standing in front of the memorial, Sakura had come to a stalemate.

The options before her were both limited and obvious.

The first option was to do nothing and stay on the island. As far as anyone knew she was dead so no one would ever go looking for her, and the hunting cabin was well hidden so she could stay there undetected indefinitely.

The second option was to make her way back to Konoha and warn about the strange group that were planning a coup. The likelihood of arriving safely to Konoha without alarming the insurgent group wasn’t very good, and she didn’t have the first clue about who all could be involved.

The third option was to officially go rouge and build her strength up and make a name for herself. From there, who knows?

Staring at the overly large cleaver sword, Sakura came to her decision.

It was time that she go rouge...

* * *

 

Back at the hunting cabin she stood in front of a mirror staring at her reflection, observing her change in image. Having remembered all the nightmare inducing stories that she had heard in kunoichi classes of what happened to women in the field, especially enemy combatants, she opted to disguise herself as a male.

Towards that end she started by binding her breasts, despite being nearly flat chested, and cutting her hair that had once been a source of pride to her. She followed up by dressing herself in the spare clothes that she was certain belonged to the effeminate boy that posed as a hunter ninja, she also wore a cowl over her head; because of what she was sure was some strange blood line or another, Sakura’s hair couldn’t be dyed; and a half mask that could be pulled down when it wasn’t in use. On top of all that, Sakura applied a low level henge to change her facial features in small ways and to give her frame a more masculine appearance. The result was an appearance that harkened to a more traditional look of a ninja.

But the reality was that she really was a girl so had to carry an extra supply pouch with items needed for the typical kunoichi out in the field including medicines for menstruation (which she thankfully hadn’t had need of yet, but it was only a matter of time) and a suicide pill intended as a last result in case she was ever caught and could not realistically expect rescue or escape (something Sakura had to realistically consider now). If ever anyone were to go through the pouch that was familiar with standard ninja or kunoichi gear would instantly realize that she was female, but if anyone was in position to go through it than she would probably be screwed anyhow so it was a catch-22.

Sakura packed away necessities in her pack, and sealing everything else, after practically stripping the cabin bare, into a couple scrolls she found and put them into her hip pouch.  She even sealed away Zabuza's sword, even though Sakura couldn't explain why she did because she didn't know how to use a sword and it was too distinctive for her to use especially as an untrained genin.  Perhaps she could use it to barter at some point in time.  And since it would be unwise to leave such an obvious safe house unprotected, Sakura concealed the cabin as carefully as she could using nets, leaves, and a low level genjutsu trap.

And then, like a ninja of old, disappeared into the night...

* * *

 

[To Be Continued...]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura's handy student handbook has made a come back, I wonder how many times it'll make an appearance. If I reference it many more times I'm going to have to list it as one of the characters of the story, hahah.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: In case you can't tell, this story is about as AU as it is possible to get. So forget the canon because I have taken the canon and fired it. Out of a canon. Into the Sun. 
> 
> There are, of course, some things that stay true to the canon. Sasuke is still a dick, Naruto is still clueless, and Kakashi is still a perv. But a lot of the major details simply had to go.


End file.
